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Similar to species with horns or antlers, male giraffes use their ossicones as weapons during combat, where they use their heads as clubs: the ossicones add weight and concentrate the force of impact onto a small area, allowing it to deliver heavier blows with higher contact pressure. [4]
True horns are found mainly among: Ruminant artiodactyls. Antilocapridae ; Bovidae (cattle, goats, antelopes etc.). Giraffidae: Giraffids have a pair of skin covered bony bumps on their heads, called ossicones. Cervidae: Most deer have antlers, which are not true horns due to lacking a bone core and made of keratin.
English: Comparison of the antler of a Megaloceros giganteus with the antler of a red deer. The antler of the red deer is in the lower right corner, the antler of Megaloceros giganteus on the top is the the view when the head is up, the drawing on the bottom shows the antler with head down.
In contrast to antlers, horns—found on pronghorns and bovids, such as sheep, goats, bison and cattle—are two-part structures that usually do not shed. A horn's interior of bone is covered by an exterior sheath made of keratin [7] (the same material as human fingernails and toenails). Antlers are usually found only on males.
A pair of horns on a male impala Anatomy of an animal's horn. A horn is a permanent pointed projection on the head of various animals that consists of a covering of keratin and other proteins surrounding a core of live bone. Horns are distinct from antlers, which are not permanent.
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The longer pair of straight, spike-like horns is atop its head between the ears, while the other, shorter pair is on the forehead; its posterior horns are always longer than the anterior horns, which may even present as merely fur-covered "studs". While the posterior horns measure 8–12 cm (3.1–4.7 in), the anterior ones are usually 2–5 cm ...
Skull of E. mirabilis. Estemmenosuchus could reach a body length of more than 3 m (10 ft). [2] Its skull was long and massive, up to 65 cm (26 in) in length, [2] and possessed several sets of large horns, somewhat similar to the antlers of a moose, growing upward and outward from the sides and top of the head.